RIP, Squall

I’m quite sad to share that our beloved FRIB 330, Squall, left us suddenly this morning around 11:30 am. She passed quickly from a burst seam in the bow. We knew her time was running short – a PVC dinghy doesn’t have a hugely long lifespan when constantly exposed to sun as she was, but we weren’t expecting her to go just yet. While we tried to save her with our trusty patch kit, the burst bow seems to have further damaged the starboard aft tube (I think there was an issue with the chamber separating the two prior to today), and no amount of patch and glue repair could save her.

We got Squall in late winter 2020, and she’s served us well through a season of cruising on Long Island Sound and southern New England and three seasons cruising from New York to The Bahamas. Squall was the perfect dinghy for us – from fishing trips to 8 mile round-trip beach runs, back creek exploration, and quahogging on Block Island to snorkel boat, passenger ferry and family car (grocery, trash, vet and laundry runs). When we had Silent Sky and didn’t have a lot of foredeck space, we loved having the ability to fold her up when we stowed her on deck for offshore passages. I learned to both row (poorly) and operate a dinghy (also relatively poorly) on Squall. We asked a LOT of that dinghy and pushed a bit beyond her design spec, but she always rose to the challenge.

Squall’s untimely departure leaves a hole in our lives and forces us to go to Annapolis earlier than we’d hoped since we now have no way to get ashore. I know it’s kind of silly, but I’m quite sad to see her go.